The Misguided War Against Medicines 2008

Research suggests that government health spending in Canada
is growing at an unsustainable pace. At the same time,
government spending on prescription drugs (both patented and
non-patented) has grown faster than other components of health
spending. In addition, new patented prescription medicines are
often more expensive than existing drugs. These observations
have led some to assume that prescription drugs-and patented
medicines, in particular-are the primary cause of the
unsustainable growth in government health spending observed in
Canada.

In order to evaluate the validity of this claim, this study
examines all of the ways in which spending on drugs may
contribute to the overall growth in total government health
spending. The evidence suggests that neither patented medicines
in particular, nor prescription drugs in general can be blamed
for the unsustainable growth rates of government health
spending.